Battery discharging

[doctor]

My discharger has a black box (not Dean's) that is supposed to take the charge of the cells down to .8 volts. Is this method of discharging the best, or should the batteries be completely discharged after every run? I have a Tekin BC112C charger and one 2400 SMC matched pack and one 2000 Trinity pack. Thank you for any help in advance.

[HauntedMyst]

Doc,
I have no clue but I saw your in Naperville and wanted to invite you to come out and race this Sunday if you have a Touring Car.

There is plenty of parking neary by, lots of resturants within 2 minutes walking, a Starbucks (thank god) and the store is well stocked for Associated and HPI stuff.

HobbyTown USA, Oak Park IL
1000 Lake Street
Oak Park, IL 60301
(708) 445-8056

[Railman]

Doc, What you have is good. The one thing that would make it even better, for better charges, more power & durability is to use a discharge tray such as the Trinity real time 2 or something similar. It will bring the pack individual cells down to an even starting point (all equal voltage), for a better charge. You would do this after you dump them on your present discharger. But like I said what you have is pretty good.
The only thing about the trays is they will only work on side by side packs (the ones with battery bars), & not end to end packs.
Joe

[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: Railman ]

[doctor]

A few comments I would like to add to the original post: Does this mean that completely discharging batteries is a bad thing? On the Tekin charger, is it best to use the P1 functions rather than the CS?
In regards to the racing invitation, if you have the car for me to drive, I would be happy to go. I am an off-road racer right now after having been out of the hobby for around ten years. I just dropped a ton of cash this summer to get back into this, and don't think it would be wise to get into another racing class right now. Maybe next year, though. Thanks for the help.

[Railman]

Doc, We have 2 Tekin 112c's, & 2 112a's & about 25 packs from 2 to 5 years old. We have had good luck with using the power flex modes (PF3) on the older packs, but it's not necesary with new packs. Use the cold start mode for all packs unless you have not discharged them to 5.4v or less. If you want to repeak use the P2 mode. It's common practice to charge them in a linear mode, (no power flex), let them cool 5 minutes or so, & then repeak right before a run. We have been either deadshorting, or using a deadshort tray, for about the last 4 years with excellent results, but it's not 100% necesary with good packs. Once they get a little older & you want to get better charges & better punch again, it's worth the time to dead short them. It's aslo good for long term storage. All of the above info is for nicad batts. Joe